Geohot’s new fancy (but against the TOS of the PS3) modified firmware might let you dip into some old-school emulation but it appears Sony are watching, with your recently played games list getting pushed to their servers when you sign into the PlayStation Network (or, indeed, have your PS3 connected at all).
A post over on GAF, where people are trying out the firmware and the apps available, suggests that upon boot the PlayStation 3 connects to a number of various sites and servers to ‘talk back’ to Sony, regardless of whether you’re signed into PSN. The list is more comprehensive than you might think, with various ad, authentication and secure servers all making up the PS3’s start-up lookups.
Does this mean Sony knows what you’re running on the PS3? Certainly, that’s evident already from the gamercards that automatically populate and show your recent games. Does this mean they’ll be banning user accounts and/or consoles that appear to have been running customised firmware? Who knows?
Sony can track your console’s ID, that much is evident. What they’ll do with that remains to be seen – Sony has remained tight lipped so far, other than to say they’re aware of the recent movements. There’s an officially open thread on the EU forums for further discussion, but let’s hope we hear from the company regarding their next steps to close all this off for good.
For more on this subject, check Digital Foundry’s blog on Eurogamer.
TheSixthAxis does not condone piracy and does not recommend the modification of your console – doing so is against the Terms of Use of the console and is possibly illegal.
cam the man
I suppose if you buy a PS3 you should be allowed to do what you want with it as long as it is legal.
But I also think Sony are in their right to ban them. When you sign up to PSN you have to agree to their rules.
Auntphil
The debate on whether Homebrew, or other mods, are legal is kinda hard to see which is correct. While in most cases the hack or mod falls under a certain gray area, that usually leans to legal. The reason for installing such mods is usually because they are needed to play pirated and illegal games. This is why companies do not like you messing with their hardware.
InternationalGamer
Technically speaking, Sony knows what you google, play, listen to, watch what, look at what photos and download what, it must be embarrassing for the person who uses his PS3 as a porn stash ^.^
TSBonyman
I’ve always suspected that there was a certain amount of spyware in the PS3 firmware, epecially since recent ToS updates.
I would recommend that anyone tempted to modify be very careful – the last thing anyone needs is to have their data re-directed somewhere that will abuse the information collected.
gazzagb
Sony has every right to ban them and should do, although there should be a way of appealing for accidental bannings.
Awayze
Please ban the console from online.
enoz321
Hey it’s Unknown
You want the CFW ps3″s banned?!
I thought you said i wasn’t going to get banned!!!
ElGuason
i want to see sony use the kill switch!